Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
After that I visited Lee, first at intervals of several days, then, by degrees, more frequently, until finally I became a daily user of opium.
Alternate Title(s):Opium Smoker; The Opium Eater
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1913
Dimensions:
32 × 44 1/8 in. (81.3 × 112.1 cm)
Richard Stein
Accession number: SUPP2000.71
Research Number: NCW: 71
InscribedUpper right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 13; Lower left: TO SWAYNE / FROM N (illegible--probably "CW); On excess tacking edge at top: 32-44; on excess tacking edge at left: "Clean Pic / 3/4" with small design and further writing obscured by label; at upper left corner, label adhered over excess tacking edge; THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS / AND THE PHILADELPHIA WATER COLOR CLUB / TWELFTH ANNUAL PHILADELPHIA WATER COLOR EXHIBITION, 1914 / TO BE DETACHED AND FIXED ON BACK OF WORK / TITLE: Opium Smoker (in NCW's hand) / ARTIST: N. C. WYETH (in NCW's hand) / RETURN ADDRESS: Chadds Ford, Pa (in NCW's hand); label adhered to right stretcher bar: Albert Strehan's Sons / PICTURE FRAMING / IN ALL ITS BRANCHES / GILDING and REGILDING / 106 West 53rd Street / New York; stretcher keys marked: PAT.D / FEB 13 / 1883 / Jun 16 / 1886 / A. D. S.
ProvenanceThe artist; Swayne (probably Norman Swayne, see note below); (?); ex coll. Mr. and Mrs. Dallett Hemphill, West Chester, PA, ?-at least 1972; (Richard Layton, Wilmington, DE); Private collection, Rehoboth Beach, DE, through 1992;
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, 1914, no. 1040, as "Opium Smoker"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 84, as "The Opium Eater"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(1), checklist p. 27; Rockland, ME, 1998, no. 72 p. 165, illus. in color p. 72; from 2000-2009, on frequent display at Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA; Greenville, DE, Somerville Manning Gallery, "N. C. Wyeth: Painter and Illustrator," June 14-Sept. 14, 2019;
References
"Studio Talk: The Twelfth Annual Exhibition of Watercolors, Pastels, and Black & White Work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts," The International Studio, vol. LIV, no. 216 (Feb. 1915), p. 314; Robert Ingersoll, "N. C. Wyeth, Painter and Father of Painters," Sunday Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, July 4, 1965, p. 5; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 453; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 251, illus. in color p. 131; Alexander Nemerov, "N. C. Wyeth's Theater of Illustration," American Art Magazine, vol. 6, no. 2 (Spring 1992), illus. b/w fig. 18, p. 53; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 215; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.484, p. 280, 281
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter to Stimson Wyeth, the artist described his visit to an opium den where "the wickedness of life was at its flood revealing the most loathsome conditions animal life can stoop to" (NCW to Stimson Wyeth, Jan. 8, 1914, Wyeth Family Archives). In June, Wyeth wrote to his mother: "The opium picture in American Magazine this month has created quite a sensation in the illustrative world and a dozen buyers have turned up....I have placed a prohibitive price on the canvas, for I would like to keep it. One man is biting at my outrageous price even, and if he offers I would be ashamed to take it. In fact I shall refuse it. $1,000. No illustration ever painted is worth that much." (NCW to HZW, dated in another hand, June 27, 1914, WFA).
An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (July 4, 1965) included an interview with Norman Swayne who posed for the novice smoker in this painting. Swayne recalled "I had to lie down on a wooden platform in his studio with an opium pipe in my mouth and a big silk tapestry of a Chinese dragon behind me." The article states that Wyeth visited opium dens in New York, but a letter of Dec. 13, 1913 makes it clear that the artist explored opium dens in Philadelphia in preparation for this painting (NCW to Stimson Wyeth, Dec. 13, 1913, Wyeth Family Archives)
The painting has been reproduced by Stuart Kingston Galleries in Wilmington, DE., size, approx. 20 x 20 inches.
An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (July 4, 1965) included an interview with Norman Swayne who posed for the novice smoker in this painting. Swayne recalled "I had to lie down on a wooden platform in his studio with an opium pipe in my mouth and a big silk tapestry of a Chinese dragon behind me." The article states that Wyeth visited opium dens in New York, but a letter of Dec. 13, 1913 makes it clear that the artist explored opium dens in Philadelphia in preparation for this painting (NCW to Stimson Wyeth, Dec. 13, 1913, Wyeth Family Archives)
The painting has been reproduced by Stuart Kingston Galleries in Wilmington, DE., size, approx. 20 x 20 inches.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 12/2000